Fraudulent Markets

• Both Agartha and Cartel earned enough revenue within the 35-week period we tracked them to be characterized as midsize companies, earning $91.6 million and $32.3 million, respectively.
• On January 12th 2022, UniCC – a darknet marketplace for stolen credit cards – announced its retirement on a prominent carding forum.
• The Genesis Marketplace, available both on the dark web and the public internet provides an avenue for attackers to buy digital fingerprints.

Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News

Sites like AlphaBay, Hansa, and Dream Market, after all, aren’t normal websites, but so-called “hidden services” designed to be accessed only with the anonymity software Tor, and thus more technically demanding than traditional websites to host. Not since the days of the now-legendary Silk Road has a single site dominated the dark web’s black market as completely, and for as long, as the online bazaar known as AlphaBay. And with the news that the site has been torn down by a law enforcement raid—and one of its leaders found dead in a Thai prison—the dark web websites for credit cards dark web drug trade has fallen into a temporary state of chaos. Mounting struggles in the darknet ecosystem present an enormous opportunity to absorb Hydra’s user base and reign the underground supreme. But the key to attracting users to these platforms is providing cryptocurrency and fiat currency-laundering services, the research shows. During the first few months of 2022, business was booming at Hydra Marketplace, the premiere Dark Web destination for cybercrime money laundering and selling narcotics and other illegal goods and services.

What Is A Darknet Market?

Despite Hydra’s historically large volumes – the marketplace received more than $400 million between January 2022 and its demise in April (detailed here) – the new generation of DNMs has caught up quickly. Following Hydra’s seizure, the twelve new Russian-language marketplaces amassed approximately 24% more volume in a period of five months than Hydra did in the first five months of the year when it was still live. As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the individuals and entities described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. All transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons are prohibited unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt. These prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any blocked person and the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.

Darknet Market News: The Latest Developments in the Underground Economy

Darknet markets, also known as cryptomarkets, are online marketplaces that operate on the dark web. These markets are used for the sale and purchase of illegal goods and services, including drugs, weapons, and stolen data. In this article, we’ll take a look at the latest news and developments in the world of darknet markets.

Recent Arrests and Seizures

The platform enabled users to hire sophisticated hackers to target victims and gain access to their private information and take over online accounts. Advertised as “the most advanced darknet market ever,” OMG primarily provides illegal drugs, but also offers products like hacking utilities, banking information, and more. It first became active in early July 2020, with deposit volumes site darknet so low it appeared to be less of a darknet market and more a personal operation. However, nearly as soon as Hydra shut down, OMG began seeing high inflows for the first time, more than half of which came from Hydra counterparties. While darknet markets have largely recovered after Hydra’s closure and fraud shops have not, single vendor shops showed a different pattern.

The blockchain analysis company said that dark web revenues fell from $3.1bn in 2021 to just $1.5bn last year, while average daily revenue for all markets dropped from $4.2m just prior to Hydra’s closure to only $447,000 immediately after. Revenues generated by underground marketplaces experienced a double-digit decline in 2022, thanks to the closure of the popular Hydra Market in April, according to Chainalysis. 2Easy admins opted to call the data packages for sale on this market “logs”. Prices for harvested data on 2Easy are comparatively cheaper than the bots found on the Genesis market; some logs go for as little as $5.

The April shutdown of the Russian-speaking Hydra Market sent the illicit world of Russian-language darknet markets into a tailspin that cut overall revenue for sellers by half, finds a report by Chainalysis. The blockchain analysis firm says blockchain activity shows that at the end of 2002, dark web markets had $1.3 billion in revenue, a substantial decline from $2.6 billion in revenue earned during the previous year. Our research details a thriving underground economy and illicit supply chain enabled by darknet markets. As long as data is routinely stolen, there are likely to be marketplaces for the stolen information. According to the article, Blackart started his work as a designer in a normal company in 2013. In this matter, he contacted a drug shop in RAMP (you can read about the RAMP Darknet Market’s previous article), one of his favorite shops for drugs.

In January 2021, German authorities announced the arrest of three individuals accused of operating the “Wall Street Market,” one of the largest darknet markets at the time. The market was taken offline and its servers were seized, resulting search the dark web in the loss of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency. This was followed by the takedown of the “DarkMarket” in January 2021, which was considered the world’s largest darknet marketplace at the time, with over 500,000 users and 2,400 vendors.

The indictment details multiple illicit transactions that took place on the platform, including five grams of methamphetamine purchased through Hydra and shipped from Ukraine to San Francisco in September 2020. Had already amassed $12.15 million in sales by the end of its first month in operation (April 2022). As of this publishing, Mega currently appears to be the biggest of the five Russian language DNMs. Mega received nearly $40 million in March 2023, followed by Blacksprut with around $20 million. Almost a year after Hydra’s takedown, five markets—Mega, Blacksprut, Solaris, Kraken and OMG! Market—have emerged as the biggest players based on the volume of offers and the number of sellers.

New Markets and Technologies

Despite the efforts of law enforcement, new darknet markets continue to emerge. One of the most recent examples is the “Hydra Market,” which was launched in 2015 and has since grown to become one of the largest darknet markets in the world. The market is unique in that it only accepts the Russian cryptocurrency, Monero, which is known for its enhanced privacy features.

Another trend in the darknet market scene is the use of decentralized marketplaces. These markets operate on decentralized networks, such as the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), making them more resistant to takedowns and censorship. One example of a decentralized darknet market is the “OpenBazaar,” which allows users to buy and sell goods and services without the need for a central authority.

FAQs

• What is a darknet market? A darknet market is